New World or Old?

Three decades ago, French experts sat down in a meeting room in the Paris InterContinental Hotel to blind taste 20 wines -- half from France and half from California. The California wines triumphed.

Since then, the "Paris Tasting" has taken on almost mythic proportions, giving New World wines (those produced in countries outside Europe) a cachet equal or superior to the established Old World elite. But the tasting also...